PIL seeks court-monitored probe into Kolkata flyover collapse

Kolkata, April 1 (IANS) A petition was filed on Friday at the Calcutta High Court for a court-monitored probe into the flyover tragedy here that has claimed 24 lives so far.

Filed before the bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur, the PIL (public interest litigation) seeks a CBI investigation as well as a panel of experts from IIT Kharagpur to probe the causes for the collapse of Vivekananda Flyover in the busy Posta area on Thursday.

“An expert committee is required to examine whether the materials used for construction were quality checked or not, whether they were approved by the ISI as well as whether there was any flaw in the planning of the entire project,” said Goutam Dey, counsel for the petitioner.

“So we have urged the court to form a committee comprising experts from IIT Kharagpur which will work under the supervision of the court. We have also asked for a CBI probe into the whole matter,” Dey said.

The petition also seeks to know the financial status of the Hyderabad-based company IVRCL that was tasked with constructing the two-km flyover that collapsed on THursday afternoon, leaving at least 24 dead and over 80 others injured.

The city police have sealed the offices of the company here and booked it under the charge of culpable homicide.

The FIR was filed following instructions of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has promised strict action against those responsible for the tragedy.

IVRCL has been battling financial constraints and has been blacklisted by several states. It said on Thursday that the tragedy was “an act of God”.

Weighed down by a loss in excess of Rs.1,500 crore by March 2015, the publicly traded company has seen its shares plummeting since Thursday’s tragedy.